Month: September 2008

1. Hey, all, and happy Sunday. Hope it’s been a good one; it has for me. Church and a nap and a chance to kick back and not stress out it is always good.

2. Hoo boy, things have been pretty busy here–started Starbucks training at work (I can now make you anything you want, though), been building up to doing projects for class, reading for class, found a church (I think), trying to figure out my life in general. Praying for friends who are going through some rough patches. Learning to trust God in all things. Not always easy to walk in this stuff, but it’s good and necessary and beautiful.

3. I’ve given up reading or listening to political commentary if I can help it…I think I’m just going to stick to the debates and let the candidates speak for themselves. Trying not to become one of the sheeple who depend on the media to interpret things for them…

4. I am an unabashed Renthead, and so I have to share this with y’all–it’s the curtain call from the final performance on Broadway a few weeks back:

5. This morning, I was reading The Valley of Vision and there was this phrase: “Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart.” That’s been haunting me all day, probably because I’m guilty of it and no longer wish to be. Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be one and the same.

This week: Well, since the autumnal equinox was a couple of days ago, thirteen things you like about fall.

1. It’s no longer mind-numbingly hot in Texas. I mean, it’s still hot, but not the “holy crap, I’m about to collapse and die” kind of hot. And then, hopefully, some cooler air comes through about early to mid-November, and the weather gets gorgeous and perfect while all the northerners are starting to freeze.
2. The pumpkin spice lattes come back to Starbucks. 😀
3. Sometimes, if you look at the right trees around here, they do change colors.
4. You get this odd mix of people in hoodies and people in shorts and flip-flops, and people wearing all of the above.
5. A lot of my favorite people have autumn birthdays.
6. One of my favorite U2 songs? “October.” And it’s perfect for the season.
7. Actually, a lot of my favorite music is rather autumnal in nature, if that makes any sense.
8. My father will have a small fit upon reading this, but Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale.
9. Related to that weather–it’s a lot more pleasant to be outside while reading or doing work. Lovely.
10. The first time it dips below about 85 or so, people start using their fireplaces (which is hilarious), and the smell of all that smoke is one of my favorite things ever.
11. This isn’t a favorite thing so much as it is an odd phenomenon: Ever since about 2004 or so, my friend and I have noticed that really crappy things happen in September in our circle of friends and family. Seriously, it’s bad. I don’t know why September decides to dump terrible things on us, but it’s enough of a pattern that my friend and I just dread September. We were both like, “This year’s gonna be better.” And then Ike happened!
12. Honestly, I don’t like wearing shoes (I know, I’m weird), but getting to bust out my closed-toed shoes for things other than work is kind of nice.
13. People’s clothing goes darker, which is for some reason really aesthetically pleasing to me. I like bright colors, but a lot of them at once freaks me out a bit.

1. It’s almost midnight, and I am posting, because I’m wide awake and caffeinated and I need to do something cathartic, I suppose. Lots of homework today. I stressed myself out unnecessarily for a bit until I realized I just need to pace myself and stay focused (which isn’t always easy for me, heh).

2. I’ve been considering this: The longer I’m a Christian, the more my beliefs have turned into something I look through, rather than look at specifically–they inform my thinking rather than consume it entirely, if that makes any sense. Which is not to say that I don’t take a look at them every once in a while and study, but it’s so they’ll get deeper into me and translate into action and an overall worldview and a stronger faith in the One to whom they point. Doctrine without trust and without good practice means nothing, and I’m starting to understand that more.

3. This is a random thought: High-church denominations tend to produce good writers, especially of fiction. Not always, but a lot of the time. Think about it. Tolkien? Catholic. Flannery O’Connor? Catholic. Walker Percy? Catholic. G.K. Chesterton? Catholic. Evelyn Waugh? Catholic. C.S. Lewis? Anglican. Madeleine L’Engle? Episcopalian. T.S. Eliot? Anglican. Frederick Buechner? Congregationalist. What can you say? I have my own theories about this, but they feel kind of unformed, so maybe I’ll expound on this sometime later.

4. How is it almost October already? This is ridiculous…

5. Okay, okay, I need to go to bed so I can get to church in the morning. Later, y’all.

1. I was reading Acts 15 the other day, and I’d never noticed this one thing before–if you don’t know what’s going on there, the church in Jerusalem gets together because there’s a controversy due to a group of folks who are saying that the Gentiles have to follow Jewish law in order to be saved. Paul and Barnabas both go and tell them about what’s been going on in the rest of the world, how people are believing Jesus and receiving the Spirit, all without even being circumcised, much less doing anything else in the law. The church concludes that it is grace through faith that saves us, and so they send out a letter to the church in Antioch (which is where most of the trouble was) telling them so.

Now, what I just noticed is that they also send two guys from Jerusalem with Paul and Barnabas–a guy named Judas Barsabbas and another guy named Silas–who were prophets, and they send them to Antioch to announce all this stuff in person, which is just incredible. I suppose they figured that it’d be good to not just write them, but to have someone there to say it personally, to do some pastoral stuff and actually encourage them. And it’d be one thing if just Paul and Barnabas did it; it’s another to have representatives from the mother church come down and do it, too. So cool.

3. I heard from my family and friends in Houston; they’re all fine, they’ve all got power, and I’m very grateful for that. Other parts of the city, on the other hand–not so much. Pray. Go help if you can.

4. So I had this whole thing up about philosophy of the Internet (did you know there’s such a thing? I didn’t either, until a couple of weeks ago), but I don’t really want to rehash it, except to say that a lot of it is Hegelian or Marxist or feminist or social constructivist and it’s starting to make me a little nuts. Why’d I pick this field again?